Time for the next story. These are coming horribly late. I am actually sailing to Kota Kinabalu as I type this and have been for the previous 4 days as well. You would think that on a 5 day voyage I would have plenty of time to catch up on my blog but actually I have been busy working in the IT department (hi five Ben!). Also, strangely, I was really sea sick on our first full day of sailing until I took a Kwell tablet in the afternoon, then zonked out for 3 hours and then I have been fine ever since. The voyage has been quite smooth the whole way, incedentally.
Right, so time for the last story about Bangkok.
On Thusday the 20th we had a faith trip. What is a faith trip? It's a one day excursion with a small group of people with no money or food. In Cambodia some people were taken with our vans an hour or so out from the ship and left to find their way back. In Thailand they drive on the wrong side of the road, so we couldn't use the vans, and there are free buses all over, so that sort of faith trip doesn't work. Here we just had to meet in the morning, pray, talk briefly and then go out for the day and see what God wanted us to do.
I honestly hadn't considered what we might do until all three groups of people doing faith trips that day met in the morning. Suddenly I thought (or should I say, "God told me"), we should go to the slums. I hadn't done anything like that in Cambodia or here, but I knew there was a slum nearby. When we broke into our individual groups I suggested it. It was the first and only suggestion because another girl, Birte, had thought about the slums when she was praying the night before. So it was decided. We wandered out onto the streets and after a few wrong turns we were on our way down some train tracks under the expressway.
As we were walking it occured to me that we have enough trouble communicating with people in downtown Bangkok, how are we going to find people who understand English in the slums? A little ways in we saw two ladies: a doctor and a nurse, or perhaps two doctors or two nurses, attending to someone. One of them spoke English well but she didn't understand and wasn't prepared for our faith trip. We asked if we could help but she didn't really answer us. So we walked on, saying "Sawatdee-kap" (hello, "Sawatdee-kaa" if you're a lady) to the people we passed. I guess we were looking for somebody that wanted to talk to us, a Canadian, a German, a Finn and two Taiwanese.
Not too much further on a shirtless man in his 60's hailed us and asked what we were up to. This got us all talking to him and his English was quite good, though his accent was strong. His name was Narong and he used to be quartermaster on a ship for 30 years, sailing around the world. He had had an accident on the ship or in a port and lost the use of his left arm and some of his left leg. We prayed for him, including asking God to heal him but there were no miracles of that sort that day. We also shared the gospel with him and tried to teach him how to pray. He actually asked to know how he could pray and wrote down what we said in Thai as we explained it in English. At the end of the day we went to the ship and got him a Thai New Testament and brought it back to him. He said he would read it and I said I would visit him a few more times before we leave Bankok. The rest of our faith trip day was a lot more wandering around and not really worth writing home about.
When we left Narong in the morning I wasn't so sure how much we got through to him. When we came back with the Bible in the afternoon he seemed more enthusiastic and I felt more positive about things. He said he would read the Bible and I suggested that he could then tell the rest of his neighbourhood about what he read and he agreed.
I visited him a third time with some different people to see if he had read his Bible so I could answer any questions he had. He hadn’t read much, he said. Jack shared his testimony with him and prayed for him. Some kids showed up and played with the other Douloi. We bought them some lollipops.
Finally on our very last day in Bangkok we brought out a whole choir to sing to Narong and the others in the slum and to hand out Gospels of John and some books for the kids. I think Narong might be depressed because he said he enjoyed the music but he just kind of stared blankly to the side when we sang. We moved the choir a little further in to the slum and got more of a crowd. We sang some children’s songs with actions and it was funny to see a tattooed man in his twenties sitting on a couch and happily mimicking the actions. I was very happy with how our last day turned out. I think we were really able to bless those people and share some joy and love with them. I am just concerned for Narong and I hope he reads and can understand his New Testament and that he will get in touch with the church we tried setting him up with.
----------
There you have it. Thailand was an open country as far evangelism goes. Now we head to Malaysia where there are actually laws against proselytizing Muslims. This definitely changes things. I complained before about how we were too timid in Thailand, but that was because I was sure our teams weren't close to pushing any boundaries. In Malaysia as an entire ship we do have to be careful what we say or we may have to find an unscheduled port somewhere else. Apparently that happened in one of the previous 42 times that the Doulos has visited Malaysia. It won't get any easier for the Doulos if they go on to the Middle East, as they plan on doing.
This also means that I am supposed to be careful what words I use over the internet, as eletronic traffic is often monitored. So my blog may sound a vague at points from now on. Not sure how much difference it makes, but those are the instructions. So here is my last chance: Jesus, Jesus Jesus! Hallelujah! Praise the LORD! Amen.
And some Bible verses from Matthew 5 which I am memorizing, and which I will be contemplating in Malaysia:
Prayer requests:"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose it's taste, how
can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything but to be thrown
out and trampled on by men."You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.
No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket but rather on a lampstand and it
gives light to all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine
before men, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in
heaven."
- for Narong and the others in the slum, that they would read the New Testaments and Gospels we gave them and that God would show his mercy to them
- for the me and the rest of the Doulos in Malaysia
2 comments:
Virtual Five! W00t!
It's always great to read your blog Moss, and I'm really glad you got to go out and share like that. See you when you get back (when is that, btw?)!
September 20
Post a Comment